Howlin' at a blue moon.....

Once in a blue moon is just a way of saying that something is rare ‘n it’s relatively rare to have two full moons in the same month....but it happens....what really is rare however is to have a blue moon on New Year’s Eve....but guess what....2010 is coming in on a blue moon....December 2nd was a full moon ‘n come Thursday, the last day of 2009, we’re gonna have another full moon....just in time for the countdown in Times Square...
the ball-dropping blue moon event...wonder if our Prez’s voice will drop an octave or two...ah well, prob’ly not...guess I’m just howlin’ at the moon....
Sorry ‘bout that...I don’t want t’get political here ‘n now...tell the truth, I’m getting really tired of all the politics...ANYWAYS the New Year’s Eve blue moon will be visible all over the US of A ‘n Canada....also Europe, South America ‘n Africa...but not in Australia ‘n Asia altho’ I have no idea what that portends...nor do I care....

A foggy morn.....

A foggy morning in the village....a great morning for sleeping in....even the squirrels 'n chickens are slow in getting up 'n out 'n about this morning....dunno why I'm up 'n moving....oh yeah, the dogs had to take a look around before going back t'bed.....
ah well....twice as much coffee this morning cuz I ain't planning on anything more strenuous than folding 'n refolding the newspaper 'n since it's a shrinking thing anyway, that won't require much effort.....
Well, I didn't lie about the paper....I swear it's just sad...anyways, looking out the back window I c'n see traffic down on Sunrise but it's a world away (feels like anyway)...Mike, the mailman is back on the job...he always runs early, his replacements always run late 'n later....he has two that I know of, neither of which speaks (the guy waves but the woman seems intent 'n preoccupied 'n seems to maybe have tunnel vision...some people just seem so serious it almost seems like you're intruding if you smile 'n say g'morning to them....brrrrrr, I think I'll have another cup of coffee....

Fuzzy moon.....

Got a 'fuzzy' moon t'nite.....'bout 3/4 full, I'd guess....I b'leeve this is a 'blue moon' month 'n it'll be full by the end of the year... the decade is closing fast...prob'ly cuz I'm on a downhill slope 'n no brakes.....I remember when I was a boy running the ridgetops of Kentucky (my Dad use'ta say you could follow the ridgetops all the way to Virginia 'n I spect you still could as far as that goes)..
the ridges are steep 'n the hollows for the most part, narrow....you could stand on top of a ridge 'n talk to someone on the the neighboring ridge 'n never have to raise your voice....well, not very much anyways....'n standing on top of a ridge, you could see way off into the blue distance, ridge after ridge, as far as the eye could take you.....it was easy to imagine Dan'l Boone or any of those old long hunters standing in the same spot 200 years before....They have blacktop roads cutting through the hills today and the woods are full of deer 'n wild turkey....folks talk that there are panthers roaming the hills again but there ain't been a lot of proof of that....don't make any difference whether there's proof or not, it's a fact that the wildlife is coming back to the hills 'n if there aren't any panthers yet, there will be one day....'n wouldn't it be great if the great Chestnut tree could make a comeback..
all things cycle, y'know....that's what life is all about....in the great scheme of things, politics just ain't very important at all.....
I remember a book from long ago.....not a very good book, as I recall.....about a Kentucky family who had to leave the hills and go into the wilderness of civilization searching for salvation.....I don't remember much about the book....as I said, I don't think it was very good but the title stuck with me all these years anyway...."Those Enduring Hills"......ah well, with a waxing moon I tend to wax nostalgic 'n you just have to put up with me...g'nite

Inbetween time.....

Ahhhhhh.....so yesterday was cold'n gloomy all the live-long day 'n Ma in her kerchief 'n me in my cap pretty much napped the day away....'cept when I had t'take the dogs outside, o'course 'n then there being absolutely nuthin' to watch on the telly....we just about exhausted the cache of old black 'n whites that I had TIVO'd and resorted to reading....What's that? you ask....Oh c'mon, you remember books.....anyways, I stumbled off t'bed somewheres around tennish 'n shuffled off to Dreamland until Rusty decided that he needed to take a short tour of the porch.....well, it's raining 'n he being a reasonable intelligent if somewhat dour Poodle-dog had t'give some consideration to the idea of stepping off the porch into the rain which he finally did 'n I appreciate the fact that he did so.....anyways, it's a gentle northern California rain 'n the temp is somewheres in the mid-fifties so it ain't all that bad out there...it's quiet 'n the drip-dripping of the rain from the eaves is relaxing.....yawnnnnnn......g'nite

T'was the nite before Christmas......

Well, here t'is Christmas Eve 'n it didn't sneak up on me this year, it came in a George Armstrong Custer damn the torpedos full speed ahead all out hell for leather charge.....'n danged if it didn't catch me flat-footed...Heck! I was just getting used to the fact that Thanksgiving had come 'n gone so quickly that I barely got to taste the turkey....'Course, time speeds up with age 'n it seems like I get a year older ev'ry few months now....ANYWAYS it's a nice sunshiny day, a little on the coolish side 'n downrite cold at nite...well, cold for northern California anyway...I still have geraniums on my front porch even if the blue potato tree has quit blooming....I don't know if it quit blooming cuz I ain't been watering it or what....still got oranges hanging on the tree altho' truth be told, they're just a little on the tart side...I bought some navels t'other day....reminded me of a former brother-in-law who had an avocado tree in his back yard but bought them from the Chinese grocer next door...at least until he figured out that the grocer was selling him his own avocados....
I was remembering Christmas, 1949.....I was twelve years old 'n my dad was laid off from the N&W (not unusual in those days) 'n he was working for the C&O down in Lexington...At that time, Lexington was several hours away on a good day but dad had to work on Christmas Eve 'n he wasn't gonna try 'n make the drive late at nite after working all day....Being the oldest, I stayed up after my brothers were all in bed to help my mother put the presents under the tree...It was the first time I'd ever done that 'n I recall that it was around 11:30 or thereabouts 'n we were just finishing....I had just told mom that it'ud be nice if dad had made it home when the door opened 'n there he was...I remember that brown leather coat he wore back then...it was cold that nite 'n he was wearing a scarf 'n gloves...they'd let him off early 'n home he came...said there was a lot of fog 'n not much traffic but slow-going anyways...That was my last being a kid Christmas 'n they come to ev'ryone sooner or later....
I've always liked Christmas....considered it my favorite holiday 'n I've never had a bad Christmas tho' the one I spent in Okinawa was on the lonely side....
All things considered however, Christmas is pretty much a good time of year....Happy Christmas to all 'n to all, a good nite!

Whatever floats your boat.....

Festivus, Smestivus! Y'can celebrate any day y'want as a holiday....that's one'a the benefits of living in America, well the good ole US of A anyways....I 'member I used to celebrate Tuesday as Red's Tamale Day...But holidays come 'n go, doncha know.....we used to celebrate Washington's B'day 'n Lincoln's B'day but now we put 'em together 'n call it President's Day...they're all made up to fit the moment anyway....I'm a little tired of all the idiots railing about Christmas 'n how it's unfair to other cultures....it ain't unfair at all....any culture c'n have any holiday they want 'n nobody else gives a damn..why should they care that Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ....Christians don't ask anyone else to celebrate, it ain't a law....it's a Christian holiday 'n Christians celebrate 'n the rest of the world should just get over it....And as far as atheists go, they should get a life.....no one cares if you're a non-believer in anything...that's the problem with being an atheist. There ain't any holy days when you don't have a god...it's like when you're retired 'n don't have a job anymore, Saturdays 'n Sundays pretty much cease being 'the weekend' when you can call every day Saturday. Or whatever!

Happy Winter Solstice to you too.....

So the 'Freedom from Religion' bunch has gone 'n bought themselves some billboard ads across country....ads like...."Yes, Virginia, there is no God!" and "Reasons Greetings"...'n that actually is okay by me, I mean I don't give a damn what they spend their money on, I s'poze it might even help the economy a little bit 'n I don't think they're gonna convince anyone t'become an atheist...well, if someone becomes an atheist becuz of a billboard, they didn't have much going for them anyway.....anyways it reminded me of a poem that I wrote some time ago....


Basic Belief
(for Pat)

“Do you believe in God!” he said.
It was not a question,
at least, not a question directed at me.
But after he left,
after he had filled the night
with statements disguised to his satisfaction,
after he was gone,
I asked myself,
“Do you believe in God?”
and had to truthfully, honestly say
that I don’t know what I believe except
that I don’t believe that I’m so very different
from anybody else,
and I find it’s difficult to deny God
just in case He does exist.

It's a scientific fact.....

Father Christmas
by Robert Service

My Father Christmas passed away
when I was barely seven.
At twenty-one, alack-a-day,
I lost my hope of heaven.

Yet not in either lies the curse,
the hell of it’s because,
I don’t know which loss hurt the most,
my God, or Santa Claus.

The Truth about Christmas
by Justin Other Smith

“Whatta ya mean, there’s no Santa Claus? Of course there’s a Santa Claus. I’ve talked to him. Sat on his lap. Wrote him a letter at the North Pole. Mailed it up the chimney. My Mom helped me. And Mom’s don’t lie.”
Uh-oh! Trauma time! Why do adults persist in perpetuating the myth of Santa Claus? Every year, millions of good little boys and girls are traumatized when their classmates tell them, “There ain’t no Santa Claus, you dope.”
Every year, some mean-spirited yahoo (euphemism for you know what) has a pressing need to tell children the TRUTH about Christmas. Last year, it was a grade school teacher. And her employers, the parents, weren’t even allowed to fire her.
Of course, when the kids get a little older, these same grinches tell them the same truth about God. They tell them the truth about Evolution, how we all crawled out of the slime together. And that’s the TRUTH!
Now, they all admit that they weren’t there themselves, but Darwin figured it all out and it’s the SCIENTIFIC TRUTH!
I’ve got to be truthful and state right up front that I’ve only read a tiny little bit of Charles Darwin, mainly because he was a really boring writer and I kept losing my place and falling asleep, but I’m sure that all the teachers who preach Darwinism as gospel never had that problem. I’m sure they could quote chapter and verse where God said, “Now listen up, Chuck, and I’ll tell you the real story. None of that Adam and Eve jive. Just the whole truth and nothin’ but...”
We say that people who believe implicitly whatever they are told are naive. Whether you accept the biblical view of Creation or Darwin’s theory of Evolution, or Clement Moore’s Night before Christmas, it seems to me that they are all arguable concepts. You should believe whatever you want. It’s nobodys business but your own.
But, if you’re at all interested, I believe in Santa Claus. I like to believe in him. It makes me feel good to believe in him. And I think I’d be a fool to give up a belief that makes me feel good about myself, my family, and my fellow man.
Merry Christmas to all.

It's still raining.....

'n like that line from the old song, "it feels like it's rainin' all over the world.."
That's cuz when I checked the obits in the Portsmouth Times this rainy Sunday morning, I found an old friend listed therein....
We were both born in South Shore 'n I was older by, I think, forty-one days.....we started grade school t'gether 'n we graduated high school t'gether....Hack was a comedian as funny as any stand-up I've ever heard....he'd riff about anything 'n crack up everybody....Somebody told me once that the best thing about old age was that it didn't last too long...in a sense, of course, they were right....life is itself short....it's like being a parent, when you begin to know what you're doing 'n you start getting good at it, your kids are grown 'n they move away....you have all this knowledge that you can't use....life is pretty much like that also....when you live long enuff that you begin to get a good grip on things, old age kicks you in the butt 'n stops your clock for you....reminds me of that old, old joke...."That's life!" "What's Life?" "A magazine." "How much does it cost?" "A dime." "I haven't got a dime." "That's life!"......
Ah well, it rains on the just 'n the unjust alike.....

Baby, it's cold outside....

There’s a storm brewing.....well, I guess it’s already brewed ‘way north of here ‘n it’s on the move, headed this direction....gonna have some rain ‘n snow, maybe even snow down here on the valley floor...now, that don’t happen often....I was trying to recall the last time I saw snow here in Ol Fair Oaks ‘n I can’t....I remember back in the late ‘90’s that I saw blowing snow over in Roseville but none here in Fair Oaks....anyways, it’s beginning to feel a little bit Christmasy partly due to the weather turning cold ‘n I guess, partly due to putting up the Christmas lights ‘n the Christmas tree...Millyrose always wanted to put the tree up early while I always wanted to wait until Christmas Eve so we compromised....I refused to put the tree up until after Thanksgiving ‘n Millyrose is OK with that.....anyhow, if it snows here, we’re all set to go....I was watching the weather channel ‘n it looks like snow ‘n cold over most of the USA... prob’ly gonna be a white Christmas for much of the country.....
Y’know, I’ve never had a white Christmas....once as I recall, it was a cold Christmas day ‘n we were getting ready to go to my G’parents for dinner and it began to snow....not those big soft flakes that are so pretty to watch but those hard little pellets that fly thru the air ‘n sting when they hit you in the face....ah well, that was my ‘white Christmas’ such as it was....snow pellets flying in the frosty air.....
Christmas of 1955, I was in hospital in Cheyenne, Wyoming with strep throat ‘n there was a lot of snow on the ground ‘n promise of much more ‘n if I didn’t get out of the hospital in time for Christmas leave, I was bound to spend the holiday in a drafty barracks....so I did what any red-blooded American boy ‘ud do....I lied ‘n said, “I feel great.” Anyways, they let me out ‘n I got my Christmas leave, got on a slow train ‘n headed for Kentucky....Christmas that year of 1955 was warm ‘n balmy....drive around with the windows down on the car warm ‘n balmy....’n I was told when I got back to Ft. Warren that it had been unseasonably warm ‘n sunny in southern Wyoming....I dunno, but it snowed the very next day with the temperature dropping below zero...
So I kind’a like my white Christmas the old fashioned way....on the teevee with der Bingle ‘n Danny Kaye.... Actually, I prefer Holiday Inn with Crosby ‘n Astaire but that’s a personal thing.....anyways, here’s wishing ev’ryone whatever kind of Christmas they want.....

Bloggers 'n recipes.......

I've found a lot of blogs devoted to various 'n sundry recipes 'n tho't about this one I wrote for my g'daughters one demented morning a couple years ago.......


DRAGONS EGGS
Justin Other Smith

Now it’s a well known fact that one dragons egg will feed a multitude. Well, a small multitude anyway. Three or four kids and a small dog. Not a pure bred dog, mind you. Only mongrel dogs are strong enough to digest dragon eggs. Mongrel dogs and ten year old boys.
Ten year old girls, of course, are a different matter entirely. Not that they aren’t tough enough. I never ever would say something like that. It’s just that ten year old girls are simply something else altogether but that’s a story better told another day. Preferably another day well into the future.
Now there are several difficulties encountered when a band of ten year old boys and a small mongrel dog are set upon having dragon eggs for breakfast. Or even lunch.
The first difficulty, and I’m not going to lie to you about this, the first difficulty is obtaining a dragons egg. This can be a really hard task. That’s why it’s essential to have a small mongrel dog. Preferably one that’s on the scruffy side.
Small scruffy mongrel dogs are the best dragon hunting dogs in the whole world. And you have to go dragon hunting in the early, early morning. Before the dragon wakes up. Because when the dragon is awake, there is absolutely no way in the world that you’re going to get a chance to steal an egg. And rest assured, the only way you’re going to get a dragons egg is to steal one.

So the only way to steal a dragons egg is to sneak up on the dragon while it’s sleeping. And that means that you can ‘t let the small scruffy mongrel dog bark. Because the barking of small scruffy mongrel dogs absolutely infuriate dragons. And trust me on this, you don’t want to be around an infuriated dragon. Heckfire, Dragons aren’t that pleasant to be around even when they’re in a good mood.
Now, let’s assume that you’ve found a sleeping dragon and obeying that old adage of “let the sleeping dragon lie,” you muzzled the small scruffy mongrel dog and made away with the dragons egg.
The next difficulty you’re going to encounter is... how do you crack a dragons egg open. It ain’t no chicken eggshell. This is one tough baby. And speaking of tough babies, you better make sure that it’s a fresh egg because if you open it up and find a baby dragon inside, you’re really in trouble.
Because Baby Dragon is going to be scared. And when he’s scared, Baby Dragon is going to let out a shriek that will deafen most humans. Well, maybe not ten year old boys but most normal humans. And when Baby Dragon shrieks, Mama Dragon is going to wake up and that’s not going to be a pretty sight.

Anyway, let’s assume that you’ve managed to acquire a fresh dragon egg and you’re well away from Mama Dragon. How do you crack this really tough shell that’s as hard as any rock you’ve ever encountered?
You could smash it with a car but there aren’t many ten year old boys that can drive. Well, maybe they could drive but nobody in their right mind would ever let a ten year old boy drive their car. You could ask an older boy to smash it with a car. Most sixteen year old boys are dumb enough to do that. But you’d have the egg spread all over the street and that’s no good.
You could drop it from the top of a tall building but then the egg would spread all over the sidewalk and that’s no good either.
What you do is put the egg in a really large skillet and get really high in a big tree or on a rooftop or something and drop big rocks on it until it begins to crack. After that, it’s easy. You just hit it with baseball bats or big sticks until it opens up and the egg runs out.
Then you cook it over medium heat and salt and pepper to taste.
I like mine scrambled, with ketchup.

Twilight

Age dims the sight
as surely as drifting day
turns into night
and fades to grey
that which once was black and white.

Theoretical Epiphany.....

theory
noun ( pl. -ries)
a supposition or a system of ideas intended to explain something: Darwin's theory of evolution.
In theory, things can only get better; in practice, they may well become a lot worse.

epiphany |i?pif?n?|
noun ( pl. -nies) (also Epiphany)
• a moment of sudden revelation or insight.

In theory then, anyone may have an epiphany. It ain’t against the law ‘n you can have more’n one in a lifetime. Heck, I have it on good authority that actors have them with amazing regularity. So, I had an epiphany....so what.....I think I’ve had more’n one but when y’get to be my age, you get forgetful....it’s called ‘oldtimers disease’....
anyways when I saw the view from the Hubble of the never-ending universe, I had a sort of epiphany....I mean, it wasn’t anything that I hadn’t already known in some recess of the incalculable universe that is the human mind, but nevertheless it dawned on me that simply because humans think that everything must have a beginning and an ending that it ain’t necessarily so....to quote George (or maybe Ira) Gershwin, I disremember which was the lyricist....
anyways I digress.....let’s take water, just for an example....the world has the same amount of water that it has always had, no more, no less.....well, according to our questionable science anyway....and it constantly recycles...we can have periods of extended drought.....no matter, the world still has the same amount of water.....we can have unusually heavy storms with lots of flooding, maybe even biblical proportions, I dunno....but according to our scientists, the world still has the same amount of water...so however Earth came to be, cut out of whole cloth maybe....the proportions have remained the same...shifted around a bit, we have evidence of that.. well, our somewhat shaky science has what we think is evidence....can we really get our minds around the concept of the chicken and the egg arriving at the same time....ah well, the really interesting thing about theories is that they can’t be proven. Or disproven. You can argue either side...or both. Maybe that’s why we invented Lawyers.....

Down by the riverside......

Ain’t this transitional weather a kick in the old patootie..
Mark Twain described the weather in northern California as ‘year-round’ summer ‘n I s’poze compared to the weather back in what was then referred to as ‘the States’...it surely was.
The transition from summer to winter, like the transition from winter to summer, what other climes refer to as Spring ‘n Fall, is subtle here in the Sackamenna Valley....Spring moves northward at about twenty miles a day which means that the duration here is about five hours or so...’n the way to recognize Autumn here on the banks of the American River is the gov’t mandated time change when almost ev’rybody turns their clocks backward an hour on a designated Sunday thereby signalling the PC among us to put away their white clothing ‘n sandals.....’course, no one in California ever puts away their sunglasses ‘n the very cautious still use sunblock ev’ry day....at least until the rain ‘n fog appears ‘n that’s usually around Christmas-time (I don’t know how other religions mark the coming of winter ‘n frankly I don’t care)....My teenage grandson recently remarked on FB that he was no longer a Christian ‘n I’m wondering if we still have to give him a Christmas present....’course, maybe he’ll still embrace Christianity for a couple weeks in December but I may be cynical (comes with dotage, don’cha know).....
Anyways.....the sun is shining, there’s a coolish breeze ‘n the leaves on the liquidamber trees have all gone red....’n I need t’make a run to Costco so’s they won’t go bellyup in this recovering economy...well, that’s what the administration dogs say...trouble is, I’m old enuff to remember all the jokes from the last depression about prosperity being just around the corner ‘n I ain’t gonna hold my breath for it....

Sumtimes current events just get t'be too much.....

Fire and Ice
R.Frost

“Some say the world will end in fire,
some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire,
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.”

To steal or not to steal, that is the question...

It ain’t considered stealing s’long as you give credit to the guy what said it. Over the years, there’ve been a lot of people who said things I wished I’d said....one of ‘em was Art Buchwald who said a lot of things that I wouldn’t have minded saying first.....His comment on LBJ ‘n the Great Society seems as apt t’day as it was then......
In my ‘way back when time, Lyndon Johnson was President of the US ‘n Art Buchwald wrote:
“As soon as the President finished his State of the Union speech, I was ordered to get some public reaction. I immediately called my father in Forest Hills, NY and asked him what he thought of all the things the President wanted to do (The Great Society).”
“If he’s got the money,” my father said, “let him go ahead.”
“I don’t think he has the money, Pop.”
“I knew there was a catch to it.”

FOR THE RECORD....

I don’t believe in the ‘Big Bang Theory’ of creation....
and as for the argument over Creationism versus Evolution....I no longer believe in either one of those theories.....I’m pretty sure that there was no ‘God’ who got bored one day and slapped together the world as we know it and as far as evolution goes.....it don’t. I know they’ve (the ubiquitous ones) have been teaching Darwin’s Theory of Evolution as substantiated fact for a number of years now but they’re wrong. Evolution has never been proven and...s’prize-s’prize....it ain’t gonna be...what is a fact and what the enlightened ‘they’ have mistaken for evolution is merely mutation. And mutation is a proven. We can do it in laboratories. We do it in laboratories all the time. In plants and animals. And there is no reason to suspect that humans haven’t mutated as well. I’m just sayin’......

Musings before coffee.....

Sixish here! In the AM ‘n still dark tho’ the sky is a lighter shade of dark.....well, wot the hell, t’is November after all ‘n even in northern California.....ah no, here in the land of pretty much year-round summer, I just can’t bring m’self to call our present weather ‘winter’....well, it ain’t. It’s what passes for Autumn here....longer, cooler nites, shorter, cooler days....the chickens are giving the world their morning shout-out....the chickens of Ol Fair Oaks are a diverse lot unlike the monotone bunch they have in Key West....one living next door is black ‘n kind of furry with long feathers on his legs that make him look like he’s wearing chaps.....Ralph Lauren’ud love him...
What happens this time o’ day is that the person (or persons) who deliver the morning paper drives down the street, wakes up the chickens who then scream for the sun to come up ‘n start the day.....Y’can’t blame ‘em for feeling like it’s their responsibility any more than you can blame people for feeling like they actually ‘rule’ the world.....
I woke up this morning thinking about all the clever people running things in this world of ours.....y’know the ones I’m talking about....people like Chris Dodd ‘n Nancy Pelosi ‘n Harry Reid....’n not just them alone, of course, but also their mirror images on the distaff side of the aisle.....’n here in sunny California where we have a legislature approaching a single digit approval rating.....
talk about fiddling while Rome burns.....these people have not only killed the ‘Golden Goose’.....they’re jumping up ‘n down on its corpse trying to squeeze out any sediment that might remain.....
Recently someone who shall remain nameless called me a ‘ballcap intellectual’....T’ain’t true, y’know....I ain’t stupid but I’m a long way from smart....what I also ain’t is clever....’n I thank God ‘n circumstance for that....Clever actually means being intelligent enuff to learn quickly but over the years it has come t’be a synonym for someone who is quick to spot the opportunity for personal profit at the expense of others....’n that seems to describe the people who choose politics as a means of gaining their daily bread.....pretty much at the expense of all the rest of us.....

Where did it go????.....

‘Way back when me ‘n the world were young....well, you know ‘n so do I that the world has been around far longer than me ‘n it’s gonna be around long after I’m dead, gone ‘n forgotten.....prob’ly long after humanity is dead, gone ‘n forgotten....after all, the world survived the loss of the dinosaurs, didn’t it?......Well, the really big dinosaurs anyway.....the small ones survive to this very day.....They (the ubiquitous ones) say the shark has survived for millenia in the self-same incarnation as today....all the climate change the world has gone through over the millenia hasn’t done much to change it..
Man, though, is changing that, at least for the shark...Oh not thru climate change, no,no...we're just killing them...shark fin soup 'n magic potions.....if we keep going, we’ll kill off a creature that is so perfectly formed for survival that it has resisted all effort to evolve.....of course, it could be that evolution, like so many of our proud achievements ‘n discoveries, is a scientific dead-end and Darwin was (gasp) wrong. Now, that is a very un PC statement ‘n spurs immediate argument ‘n criticism from all the politically correct Liberal-thinkers....which is odd, when ‘n if you think about stuff like that, becuz they are the very ones that should be challenging everything....’n I have to wonder why they ain’t....
Back in the halycon days of the hippies, those wondrous magical golden days of the ‘sixties, the liberal youth challenged the belief system of their elders... Youngthink! “Damnation, Charles, it’s downright blasphemous ‘n shouldn’t be allowed.” “Never trust anyone over thirty.” “Out with the old, in with the new.”
“Tune in, turn on, ‘n drop out!”.....Ahhhh, where have all the flowers gone?
Walmart has a line of products called, “Faded Glory”...most of which seems to have been made in China ’n the US of A seems t’be heading that same direction, sinking in a morass of our own making with over half of our diverse and wonderfully self-sufficient population clamoring for the right to be put on the dole.....about sixty percent of the population at this time wants the other forty percent to support them.....redistribute the wealth, pay for my medical marijuana, make my house payments for me and give me a big-screen teevee.....but, y’gotta wonder how long the forty percent is gonna work to do that....when it drops to thirty percent or twenty percent....or less....
“gone to graveyards, every one...”

O, Dem Golden Dem's.....

O, dem dems....California is a dem state f'sure, f'sure....'n our dem legislators just levied a 10% increase on the withholding of every worker in this golden state...they need the money cuz the state is broke (as in bankrupt, can't pay the bills, etc) 'n that fav'rite son, the exemplary dem President Pro Tem Daryl (sissy spelling) Sternberg tried to sneak a ten million dollar pat on the back to himself in the form of a...are you ready? A Cultural Tolerance Center here in good ol Sackatomato (wot the heck, a million here 'n there ain't so much, chump change for our esteemed legislature) 'n all for the glory of...I dunno.....himself...ah wot the hell.....California is truly a microcosm of what the whole damn country is gonna look like when all the 'social engineers' get thru with us....

The North wind doth begin to blow......

There’s a cool breeze out’a the north this morning ‘n I’d much rather be asleep but the village chickens are questioning where the sun is hiding ‘n it ain’t long after they begin that Willie decides that it’s time for him to go out ‘n he gets real insistent about it.....
I was thinking that it’s getting on close to the fall time change...Spring forward ‘n Fall back, y’know....They started this nonsense ‘way back in WWII to ‘conserve’ daylight...(another example of man plans ‘n God laughs)...Now that I c’n sleep in, I don’t mind the late mornings....in fact, I quite like them ‘n the twilight hours of eventide are pleasant also but the rest of the world never did do things just to please me so I guess I’d just better enjoy whatever the world brings t’my door.....

Slippery slopes ‘n pissing inta t’wind.....

Johnny King, bless his heart wherev’r he may be, was a friend o’ mine back in the day who was possibly the most accident-prone guy I knew...’n strapping a single-action revolver onto his hip for a little fast draw action prob’ly wasn’t the smartest thing t’ do.
Fortunately, the bullet passed thru his knee without shattering the kneecap...
They use’ta say that stupid went all the way to the bone ‘n to this day I wonder how most of us managed to survive....it sure wudn’t cuz we were a brainy lot....what with fast cars, crooked roads ‘n the drug of choice for country boys (moonshine likker ‘n 7 percent beer) ‘n the economy being in the tank (t’day ain’t all that unusual) which gave us all ‘way too much time to find nuthin’ t’do while under the influence of youth ‘n stupidity, I am suprised by how many of us made it into our dotage....
All this brought on because Millyrose confessed to a dread that she was worried about the country ‘n where we might be headed....’n according to our president, a number of his spokespeople, the national pundits ‘n that cursed Faux News...we’re headed down a slippery slope....reminds me of that toast uttered by many a country boy as he popped a top on a can of brew....”Up to the lips, over the gums, look out stomach, here she comes”...
I don’t profess t’know where the world is headed.....politicians come ‘n go, wealth disappears in the blink of an eye or the turn of a card...mothers cry for their children ‘n people pray for guidance...the old Chief said, “Water flows ‘n the grasses grow ‘n the sun comes up in the morning whether you want it to or not.”
Heck! I’m just along for the ride anyways but I believe in tomorrow...I think ‘most everyone does..

Just flip the damn coin.....

It ain’t a personal thing, y’understand...I don’t personally dislike Obama, I just didn’t want him for President. I tho’t he was too young, too inexperienced and ‘way too Chicago t’be President of the ‘hull damn country...on the other hand, he won.
Which he ‘n his posse are ‘way too fond of saying.....I tho’t he’s a smart guy, he’s just a lot more political than he pretends ‘n the job tends t’make the man more than the man makes the job....I tho’t that one of the best things that would come out of his presidency would be a lessening of the racial divide that has been a curse on the USA for far too long....evidently I was wrong for the racial divide, rather than easing seems to have grown ever wider with even more confrontations...
it may be, just possibly, that more confrontations is exactly what we need to finally see once and for all that ‘the Colonel’s lady ‘n Rosie O’Grady are sisters under the skin’....
There is after all is said ‘n done, only one race of humanity.....

Big River.....

I used to sit ‘n daydream a lot back in my way back when time....I did a lot of it staring at the Ohio River....the River was a big deal in my life back then....well, I think it was a big deal in the lives of most of the people I knew back then....It was a ‘BIG’ River, prob’ly a half-mile wide tho’ ever’body use’ta say it was a mile wide ‘n something of a rite of passage for the boys of the village....well, swimming across it was a big deal anyway...’n mostly it was a challenge for thirteen year olds....at least, it was for me ‘n I was thirteen when I swam it....the problem came when I realized that if I tried to swim back, I would prob’ly drown...I walked upriver, searching for a log or piece of driftwood that I could hang on to kick my way back but I didn’t find one that I thought was good enuff....I walked all the way to the U.S. Grant bridge which was pretty near a mile upriver from where I had landed....I was a skinny thirteen year old in a bathing suit on the wrong side of a big river. The U.S. Grant bridge was a toll bridge....a quarter for a vehicle, a nickel for a pedestrian and I didn’t have a nickel...Heck! I didn’t even have a pocket. I had all sorts of plans for evading the toll but I don’t remember any of them now. I think I just begged my way past the toll station but the mem’ry of that is lost in time....I did, however, get back to Kentucky ‘n walked the mile down the narrow blacktop t’get back home.
I recall it was a while before I ever swam the Ohio River again but swim it I did ‘n that time I swam back as well. I only swam it the two times but that was enuff.

The circles that you find......

I got a look at infinity t'other dayi....not that I really understand it, of course...it's just that I'm getting older 'n I'm realizing that I don't understand much at all, that I haven't understood much of anything throughout my whole life....I tho't I did, of course...after all, like most Americans, I've been to school. I knew my ABC's 'n that 1 + 1 =2 before I ever got started in our public education system but I learned lots of things in school.....I learned facts....or what I was told was facts...what most people believe are facts..
I learned facts 'n figures 'n dates....I learned a history that had been constructed by people not much different from me who had been taught the same kind of facts 'n figures 'n dates from people not much different from themselves....'cause people are like a river, y'see.....flowing to the sea 'n returning to the mountains to flow to the sea again 'n again....'n I learned the eternal question, "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?"
I was raised a Christian, so I went to Sunday School 'n I learned the Bible....that in the beginning, there was a void...high school science taught me that Nature abhors a vacuum so I assumed that God felt the same....
I read recently that Science was the only true God because Science is based on fact 'n I remarked that if you accepted that statement as fact, you were in reality accepting it on faith which meant that Science was just another faith-based religion....
but I'm meandering again.....I was talking about infinity and how a picture from the Hubble helped me to what I think is a greater understanding of death.....Y'see, the Hubble showed multiple universes that seemingly go on without end....and in our little world, we're taught that everything must have a beginning and an end....we're born and we die. Rivers start out as a raindrop in the mountains and end as an ocean. All living things have a beginning and an end. Except they don't. We talk about the circle of life without understanding. The interesting thing about a simple circle is that it has no beginning and therefore no ending. It is infinity. Which means, to my simple mind, that birth and death do not exist. They are an illusion.
Ain't that a gas?

ah the simple life......

I've been reading about Roman Polanski....all the famous people that think he should skate 'cuz it was so long ago 'n besides the girl he raped has forgiven him 'n in most of the world thirteen year old girls are perfectly legal sexual toys....'course, most of the world views the 'decadent west' as morally backasswards....on that proverbial other hand however, Polanski (with evidently the concurrence of the girls mother) pled guilty to sodomizing a thirteen year old child anally and orally....'n then he paid them off but the amount he paid had to remain secret...I wonder what the going price for sodomizing a child was anyway....
'course, there are people who think he should go to jail f'rever....not so much for what he did to the child but for thumbing his nose at American authorities...
I wonder if all those famous people would come to his defense if he was a simple Catholic priest.....uh, prob'ly not....he should'a had that Oklahoma judge that O'Reilly 'n Geraldo went after (and got)....

Idles tho'ts.......

“When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains,
And go to your Gawd like a soldier.” R. Kipling

Afghanistan is a hard country firmly rooted in the past...well, the past to much of the world but obviously the here ‘n now to the Afghani’s....People been trying to conquer Afghanistan for thousands of years, even before Alexander who durn near got himself killed while he was there.......’n it don’t seem to matter how strong your army is or how long you stay, in the end Afghanistan wins out....not so much the Afghan people, y’understand...
like people everywhere, they live ‘n die ‘n get on with their lives as best as they can regardless of what goes on around them......well, I’m just saying that it ain’t gonna matter too much to the Afghani’s what we Americans do...anymore than it mattered what the Russians before us did...’n the Brits ‘n Alexander ‘n all the other warriors of the world.....
Y’know, too much thinking, like most things, if done to excess is bad for your health....I was talking with my buddy, Doug, t’other day (he’s a great believer in the Democratic way of doing things ‘n thinks that sharing the wealth is a good thing but he ain’t a socialist, nosirreebob!.) Anyways, he was talking about Iran ‘n the possibility of going to war over their hidden nuclear efforts ‘n how all the information was that Iran was building THE BOMB!.....I pointed out that when Prez Bush said that all the intelligence agencies said that Iraq had WMD ‘n wasn’t afraid to use ‘em that he claimed that Bush ‘n Cheney lied just to get us into a war so that Little George could show his old man how to really win a war ‘n besides it was all about the oil ‘cuz ever’one knew that Bush/Cheney were oil men ‘n wanted to go to war to make all their friends richer....or words to that effect.....ah well, the wheel turns as the ubiquitous ‘they’ say.....or is it, the worm turns.....I dunno or I forget but then I’m three years older’n dirt......

Faith 'n the question of faith....

“Science is the only true God!” Or so say the enlightened progressives among us. Of course, that belief requires a certain ‘leap of faith’ which science then must share with all the other religions and, as it is the leap of faith that makes most religions suspect, it must also be applied to science.
S’funny how scientific fact is applied so readily as substantiation for that which we assume we know when, in point of fact, we not only know so very little, the passage of time exposes new and unknown facets that then require us to adjust the facts so as to fit our assumptions.
So very much like the old parable of the blind men and the elephant.

Universal health care.....

Okay! Here’s the deal. One of the things we were s’pozed to have learnt in grade school: Keep your eyes on the prize. You c’n run as hard ‘n fast as y’can but if you wander offtrack, you’ll never win any races....
We already have universal health care. Uninsured people get treated and they don’t pay for it. Hospitals are required by law to treat everyone whether or not they can pay.
The problem is not that the uninsured don’t get treated; the problem is how it’s paid for.
And right now, everybody who has insurance pays for the uninsured in higher premiums and higher prices for drugs, treatment and hospital stays.
And guess what? If an uninsured person doesn’t receive treatment, a hungry trial lawyer will file a lawsuit on their behalf and the jury will force an insurance company to pay not only for the treatment but the lawyers fees.
Which results in higher medical costs for everybody who pays for insurance.
Round Robin is just one of the names for this operation. Insanity should be another.

I'm ag'in it.....

So, I was talking with my friend, Big Andy or, as I like to call him these days, Cap’n Hook which he wears where his right hand use’ta be....’n I said I agreed with George Will that we should cut a chogie from Afghanistan ‘cause there was no way that we were gonna come out ahead in that country ‘n Andy jumped up ‘n said, “you were for the Iraq war when Bush was President ‘n now you’re against Afghanistan ‘cause Obama’s President...”
When I politely demurred, he reminded me that I had argued vehemently for our involvement in Iraq....so I explained:
I was ag’in it afore I was for it, ‘n then I was for it for awhile afore I changed my mind ‘n was ag’in it ag’in.....but that was then ‘n this’s now...
Now we’re in Afghanistan ‘n I’m ag’in it same as I was ag’in Vietnam which don’t mean that I didn’t root for our side...what the heck, we won ev’ry battle we were in over there, sort’a like during our own revolution when England won just about ev’ry battle but lost the war....which is pretty much what we did in ‘Nam. I pointed out to Cap’n Hook that ‘Nam was a bi-partisan effort that started out under a Republican administration, escalated under a Democrat administration ‘n finally floundered under a Republican administration. ‘N now it appears that we’re on the same kind of course...
General McArthur warned ‘Ol I like Ike’ about getting into a land war in southeast Asia but Presidents don’t have to take advice from people they don’t like ‘n after all, the USA was the biggest, baddest bullyboy in the whole world ‘n it didn’t matter that the Vietnamese had just kicked the butt of the French Foreign Legion, the US of A would show ‘em...
Anyways, it’s my belief (‘n I’m about as nobody as y’can get) I think that Afghanistan is like a high-desert southeast Asia in the respect that it’s impossible to mount a concerted attack ag’in people that ain’t there...Afghanistan, like Vietnam, is an internecine conflict (civil war) among multiple tribes that have been struggling for supremacy for several thousand years and they didn’t listen to the Brits or the Russians ‘n they ain’t gonna listen to us.
Best we park ourselves outside ‘n watch what happens ‘n deal with whatver results as best we can. After all, it ain’t our country.

Do two dox equal a paradox?

As this old world spins.....
I saw a video of a view through the Hubble of galaxies galore....a million, billion universes stretching into infinity...

It’s a quiet Sunday, a chocolate oldfashioned donut ‘n coffee ‘n the rather pathetic Sunday Bee (I never really liked the Bee but it use’ta be a newspaper)...
I don’t know why we continue our subscription, (out of habit, I s’poze) as I pretty much get the news off the computer...’n I read the comix off the computer altho’ I must confess, they’re all printed in various ‘n sundry newspapers around the country....t’is a paradox....luv that word tho’ for the life of me, I can’t figure out what a single ‘dox would be....

Nyah, nyah, nyah.......

No thanks necessary......

In my ‘way back when’ time, you know when the country was young ‘n full of ‘piss ‘n vinegar’ and the europeans considered us to be a country full of bumpkins, back then we were a naive, undereducated bunch of backwoodsment who didn’t know that there was certain stuff that we couldn’t do....y’know, stuff like building railroads and highways and trains ‘n planes ‘n automobiles, back when we all thought that bigger was better so we all aspired to live high, wide ‘n handsome ‘n figgered that we were the envy of the world.
Little did we know that the world was thumbing it’s collective noses at us so when the Great War of the early twentieth century threatened to destroy all of europe, we jumped in ‘n saved their collective asses. And when the second great war erupted, why we did it again. And then we taxed U.S. citizens to pump monies into the destroyed european economies so that they could rebuild their superior nations.
So they could go back to thumbing their collective noses at us.
But they wanted our jeans ‘n our boots. And they wanted our movies ‘n our teevee shows. And Big Mac’s ‘n fries. And Coca-Cola ‘n American cigarettes. They loved our Rock ‘n Roll music ‘n they all wanted to come to Disneyland.
But we were a naive lot, so happy-go-lucky dumb that we didn’t know they were thumbing their noses at us.
And when the French lost Indo-Chine, we helped negotiate an honorable withdrawal.
And got ourselves mired in an unwinnable land war in southeast Asia. And the europeans thumbed their collective noses at us again.
And then we dreamed the really impossible dream, peace in the middle east. An area of the world rife with tribal hatreds going back to the birth of what should be mockingly called ‘Civilization’....
And europe thumbed their collective noses at us yet again.
But we’re a forgiving bunch, we Americans. Probably because we’re all a bunch of immigrants from every corner of the world and somehow we all seem to get along, prob'y becuz we're all a bunch of naive backwoodsmen who just don't know any better......
Oh, we don’t always get along peacefully. We quarrel ‘n pout, we huff ‘n puff, we air our dirty linen in public for all the world to see....but by and large, we’ve achieved in this country what the whole world really needs....we’ve become a nation of law where we sue our neighbors instead of killing them.
As the sage, Pogo, once stated, “We have met the enemy ‘n they is us.” And suicide just ain’t practical.

Something about Sarah.....

What is it about Sarah Palin that is so off-putting to liberal Dems....I mean, if anyone ever epitomized the average American woman, it’s Sarah Palin.
She’s a working mother like almost every other woman in this country. Contrary to what the media might have you believe, American women don’t have time to obsess over which trendy beauty spa to patronize or the latest fashion from Paris or Hollywood to emulate. Most of them are lucky if they can get to Supercuts every couple months and they buy their clothing at Target and Walmart.
And obsessive dieting....Nah! Maybe in their dreams but never in the real world where convenience and necessity take precedence.
And educated? Most American women are well and truly educated in the things that really matter. Like how to make the shrinking dollar stretch to fit the too long month. And how to make the car payment and the house payment and how to pay for the electricity and home heating and school pictures and all the rest of the ‘little’ stuff that our elite politicians don’t have to deal with because their time is too important.
I guess that Harvard educations are a good thing for people who aspire to tell other people how to live but in the real world, people who butt into other peoples business are apt to be told in no uncertain terms to “F### off!”
P’haps Sarah has been too long at the fair, too long in politics, or p’haps she has, like so many of us, mellowed with age ‘n learned to bite her tongue ‘n keep her own counsel.
Or it could be that old Irish thing that I learned at my momma’s knee, “Don’t get mad. Get even!”

The Emperor has no clothes.....

an old fairy tale seemingly come true.

Way back when Obama first exploded on the scene and the world became convinced overnight that he was the Messiah come to save American politics, there were a few voices that objected, saying “He has no experience.”
When Sarah Palin was chided by the left as having no experience, there were a few voices that stated, “Obama has less experience than Palin.”
When Obama swept into office on a messianic wave, he was idolized as few men have ever been and certainly no living politician, there were a few voices quietly stating, “He has no experience.”
And now, less than a year into his Presidency, more and more people have taken off their rose tinted spectacles and are beginning to admit that the little boy was right, to wit: “The Emperor has no clothes....”

Just around the corner......

“Prosperity is just around the corner...”
Herbert Hoover, 1932.....

I’m weary of hearing about the damn healthcare thing...all the fingerpointing, all the pros ‘n cons, I’m sick of it...’n I’m really tired of all the wimpy losers that think the government should support them because they’re too damn lazy to work ‘n too dumb to steal....I’m talking about that bunch of people that you can fool all the time....you know the ones I mean.. the working poor, or the hardly working poor, or the never worked and never will work poor that spend their lives on welfare....the ones that get the ‘earned income credit’ at tax-time because they didn’t work enough to make enough money to pay taxes so the government gives them money that they take away from the worker bees. The old Robin Hood, ”Give us your vote ‘n we’ll take money away from the rich ‘n give it to you.” Except, they don’t really take money away from the rich. That’s not the way it works. The Queen Bee (the rich bees) never pays. The worker Bees pay. ‘N pay. ‘N pay. And as long as the percentage of the idle poor hovers around fifty percent, the Democrats will have enough willing pawns to keep them in power. Of course, that’s a tactic that the Republicans would dearly love to use or at least exploit. It’s called ‘Politics’ and it worked in ancient Rome ‘n the Irish made it work in old New York... ‘n in Chicago ‘n by God, it’s still working t’day....
I’ve heard it said that God must love the poor because He made so many of them ‘n I think it says somewhere in the Bible that “The poor will always be with us.”
In the ‘Ancient and Sacred Book of Hibernian Politics’ it reads, “The gullible will always be with us.”

And that’s enough rant for one night...I’m off to the Land ‘O Nod.......

RECALL THE LEGISLATURE!......

Ever’ damn one of ‘em....
Replace them with real people who actually understand what it’s like to have too much month left over at the end of the money. And while we’re at it, change the salary structure. I’m told that the average wage in California is 45K annually. I can’t think of any reason that public servants should make three times the wage of an average citizen.
And while we’re on the subject, I really can’t think of any reason for ‘public servants’ that get termed out or lose their place at the public trough for other reasons should get token jobs that pay two to three times the average wage of an actual state worker....
Of course, we’ve been told so long that “we have to pay more in order to get the best people for the job”.....
that’s been the excuse for hiring knuckleheads to run the state franchises called, funny enough, Public Education...ie, State Universities.....my my my....I can just imagine the founding fathers envisioning state sponsored fiefdoms, coffers overflowing with taxpayers monies (Oh wait, I forgot...they didn’t have taxpayer monies)......didn’t they fight a war in protest of unfair taxation? Wasn’t this country born in protest of unfair taxation? Didn’t they have tea parties and town hall meetings where they demonstrated against the ruling authority? I believe they had underground printing presses churning out seditious pamphlets calling for the violent overthrow of the recognized government......ah well, t’was a different age....
John Hancock signed with a flourish and in letters large enough for King George to read without his spectacles a declaration of independence while Rahm Emmanuel collects a White House enemies list (a direct violation of the law) from the archived e-mails of cowardly institutions like AARP which has devolved from a forum speaking for the elderly to become a new-age insurance entity eager to leap into bed with the government....
“Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

‘n so to bed, t’sleep, perchance t’dream.....”

Oh, dat lucky ol sun.......

I think maybe Obama’s kind’a like the rooster that thinks his crowing makes the sun come up in the morning.....‘n boy o boy, Governor Patterson in New York has got the Obama mojo working the way it’s s’pozed to.....He just gave the non-working poor (voters all) $200 per child to spend any way they want to.....OSTENSIBLY money supposed t’be spent on school supplies but there is no hindrance, at least no State sponsored hindrance on how the money is spent....sooo...evidently in New York State, there has been a run on teevee’s, video games, beer ‘n licquor, etc......ah well, that poor ignorant deprived underclass just doesn’t understand the importance of designer jeans, the 'right' sneakers 'n backpacks, etc....
What amazes me most, I think, is that all the educated elite Liberals have studied the ‘bread ‘n circuses’ of ancient Rome (of course they have) but they must evidently view themselves as the chosen ones who will lead the mob.....the leaders who will have the perks of leadership, ie; the limos, the penthouses, the country homes, unlimited and free medical care for life....the ones that Orwell referred to ‘as some animals more equal than others’......
Well, quoting Steve Martin, “Excuuussseee Meeee..”... See, I was born during the Great Depression of the twentieth century ‘n hopefully I’ll live to see the end of this first depression of the twenty-first century ‘n I grew up with the concept (drilled into me by my parents ‘n grandparents ‘n almost ever’ other adult I knew) that if you wanted anything in this world, you had to work for it. And that famously included food, shelter, education and, yes, medical care.
Eastern Kentucky where I grew up is a hard-scrabble kind of place with more than its fair share of poor people. But in a land where the necessities of life came hard, there was an abundance of faith, hope and charity.
And the greatest of these is charity. People who have little always give more of what they have than wealthy people.
This country doesn’t need ‘free’ medical care for its citizenry. No country needs that. And besides, it ain’t free. We don’t need to overhaul our healthcare system. We need to overhaul our welfare system.
There is dignity in work and people need to work. First, they need to work for the basics. And when that is satisfied, when they have achieved responsibility for their own lives, that’s when other goals come into play. That’ll be the time to work for what is essentially the ‘toys’ that we seem to admire so much.

Okay! Maybe that’s enuff ranting for one nite....

If it ain't broke.....

"I will take my death into my own hands. The State has no business giving me the authority to die - or the authority to live. Matthew Parris"

“class struggle is a central element in the analysis of social change.....”

"Change we can believe in....." Candidate Barack Obama

Social change.....giving the poor a leg up...collective Democracy where the untaxed poor are invited to raise the taxes on the greedy rich folk....Robin Hood stealing from the rich to feed the poor, minus of course, his operating expenses....
Karl Marx was a profound thinker who won legions of supporters around the world but his predictions have not withstood the test of time.
His adherents fomented the bloody revolution that toppled the Tsars of Russia and fired the imagination of the world. Utopian dreamers everywhere responded to the drumbeat of social change and predicted a world-wide change where the capitalistic bourgeois would be ground under the triumphant feet of the proletariat ushering in a world wherein "From each according to ability, to each according to his needs" would be the norm. Social change, the future of the world.
During the first half of the twentieth century, Marxism had taken firm roots but in the second half, the Marxist dream collapsed. The people of Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Romania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Albania and the USSR rejected Marxism and entered the ongoing transition toward private property rights and market-exchange system; ie, capitalism or as we call it in the USA, Republican Democracy.
Countries that have had socialism forced upon them (not the most advanced capitalist countries) the poor, so-called Third World countries condemned the masses to systemic poverty and political dictatorship.
Ah well, some dreams die hard.

Sowing the wind......

Sometimes I just can't sleep 'n I play Solitaire 'n other stuff 'til I get sleepy.....'n sometimes I write stuff that come the morrow even I will not understand....'n sometimes I go into my own archives 'n read again the nonsense that I find there....I find that I'm a little upset with the direction that President Obama seems t'be taking us 'n I'm so irritated by the mainstream media that I can't hardly stand it....part of what irks me is I have a neighbor who doesn't have cable or satellite 'n only watched 'free' teevee which means that he gets his news solely from one of the major networks 'n he gets a totally different view of what's going on in this country.....he thinks that far-right zealots are blaming Obama unfairly, that American healthcare is broken (it ain't) 'n that we should all give Obama a chance.....I consider myself t'be a moderate conservative 'n I thought we should give Obama a chance, but after half a year into his first term, Obama seems to be slipping badly....I think he misjudged what he considered to be a mandate from the American people and if he ain't careful, he just might end up being judged a worse President than Jimmy Carter.....I was a McCain supporter 'n I don't give a damn what anybody thinks about Sarah Palin...McCain/Palin lost the election mostly, I believe, because the Republican Party was in such disarray after Bush/Cheny that no Republican had much of a chance to win....Still, McCain/Palin received almost half of the votes.....not enough to win but certainly enough so that the Democrats should have taken notice of the divide and governed accordingly....They did not. It appears that Obama may well have 'sown the wind 'n thus must reap the whirlwind.....
The following is a pre-election speech from John McCain that stuck in my mind.

"We cannot again leave our problems for another unluckier generation of Americans to fix after they have become even harder to solve. I'm not interested in partisanship that serves no other purpose than to gain a temporary advantage over our opponents. This mindless, paralyzing rancor must come to an end. We belong to different parties, not different countries. We are rivals for the same power. But we are also compatriots. We are fellow Americans, and that shared distinction means more to me than any other association. I intend to prove myself worthy of the office; of our country; and of your respect. I won't judge myself by how many elections I've won. I won't spend one hour of my presidency worrying more about my re-election than keeping my promises to the American people. There is a time to campaign, and a time to govern. If I'm elected president, the era of the permanent campaign will end. The era of problem solving will begin. I promise you, from the day I am sworn into office until the last hour of my presidency, I will work with anyone, of either party, to make this country safe, prosperous and proud. And I won't care who gets the credit." John McCain

“Truth is mighty and will prevail. There is nothing the matter with this except it ain’t so.” Mark Twain

The Great Beer Summit......

Y’just gotta wonder about some stories that seem like they'll never go away.....’course,we never would'a had a beer summit 'n it wouldn't have been a story if Obama hadn’t tripped over his silver tongue in defense of his racist friend......Professor Gates has had a long ‘n storied career decrying racism in America.....(as had Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, etcetera) ‘n if, as many in the world thought, the election of Barack Obama was indicative that our long divisive nightmare was nearing an end, why that would put finito to the careers of the professional race-baiters.....I mean, once a horse is dead, it don’t matter how much you beat it, it ain’t gonna go no more....and the truth of the matter is that America has always been a melting-pot ‘n no matter how hard folks may strive to keep whatever they view their heritage t’be, it ain’t gonna happen. We are a blend of cultures. We have always been a blend of cultures from the very beginnings of this nation. The europeans that came here didn’t kill off all the aboriginals that lived here (tho’ truth be told, they tried, they tried)....This is a large country ‘n human nature being what it is, humans did what some think they do best....they procreated with one another without regard to creed or color....’n we’re still doing it t’day....’n we’re going to keep on doing it ‘til we’re such a mixture of colors ‘n creeds that we’ll have to find some other reason to hate each other.....not quite sure how profiling is gonna work then but we are an inventive species ‘n my guess is that we’ll work something out.....

Now y'see it, now y'don't......

Another ‘Big Lie’ that we’ve all heard too many times.... that our health care system is ‘broken’ and needs t’be replaced immediately if not sooner at an untold cost....
multi-trillions of dollars (c’n anyone actually imagine a trillion dollars, let alone multi-trillions).....It’s a lie! Our health care system ain’t broke....maybe a little bent...
well, in some cases really, really bent....but that ain’t no reason to scrap a working operation....AND the Obama administration knows this....they know that the system ain’t broke and that it’s impossible to scrap it and begin anew.....so it’s a lie......The question is.....why the Big Lie.....
well, a cursory look at the short history of the Obama Miracle will show that the Big Lie has been a favorite tactic since the very beginning......make a lot of noise, scare a lot of people ‘n they won’t notice what trick you’re actually performing......c’mon, it’s called ‘sleight of hand’ and it’s a staple in every magic act that has ever been......draw the audience attention to the right hand ‘n they’ll never notice that you’re picking their pockets with your left hand...... (the pea is never under any of the cups, but you knew that, right?).....
On that proverbial other side, health care does need a serious reformation and government could do it....it’s that could’a, should’a, would’a thing.....They could have done it long ago, they should have done it long ago, and they would have done it long ago.....except government lacked the proper incentive...we the people vote ‘em in and the special interests make sure they stay in long enough to get their bellies full gorging at the public trough.....or as George Orwell phrased it in 1984, “some animals are more equal than others.”

One side or t'other.....

Y’know, I’ve been thinking about this Cambridge nonsense ‘n I’ve come to the conclusion that the Liberal among us are much more excised than the rest of us....
Now, it’s my personal belief that Professor Gates should’a said to the responding officers, “Thank you very much for coming but I live here and there’s no problem.” Of course, that is not an acceptable scenario for an activist proponent of (black) civil rights. Nosirreebob, what Professor Gates evidently saw was an opportunity to put a white policeman in his place, to send this white policeman to the back of the bus, so to speak....to educate him. Because as everybody knows, only whites are racist (or can be)....”S##t-fire” as my old daddy use’ta say, “Everybody knows that!”
Problem is, like so many other ‘white’ people in this country, I’m beginning to get really tired of being told that I’m a racist simply because I was born white. That said, I’m aware that there are racist white people (DUH!) but there are also racist people no matter what color skin they wear..(another duh)...and to deny that fact is akin to rewriting history....or to make an assumption that only one side can be right....as in the Prez’s statement that, “he didn’t have the facts of the case but the Cambridge police acted stupidly.”....Uh, I guess calling the Prez stupid for making a (bi-partisan adjective here) remark would be making an unfair assumption. Ah well, being white, I suppose, only allows me to see one side of the issue....

The Prop...

I dunno, Thursdays are beginning to feel a lot like Fridays.....which makes Friday feel like Saturday 'n Saturday feels like Sunday.....'n two Sundays every week is just plain unAmerican......
It’s all, of course, pegged to the ‘furlough Fridays’ imposed on most (not all) California State workers by our ebullient Governor......who, it appears, is the victim of that old Harry S Truman dictum, “The buck stops here!”......Which it does. Arnie acted with the limited power that he has ‘n furloughed a lot of people thereby saving the State money.....Actually, it’s a lot like a 15% tax on State workers so that the Legislature can continue supporting their special interest groups that keep them in office.....but, y’all knew that, didn’t you?
All part of The Big Lie......’n right at the moment, it’s the liberal elite that is responsible for most of the Big Lies that are repeated ad infinitum, ad nauseum in all the media......like ‘The Prop!’ as Proposition is currently being called.....seems that the liberal elite is concerned that Californias schools are scraping the bottom of the barrel ‘n it’s all the fault of ‘The Prop’ for taking money from the schools.....it doesn’t matter that it is totally untrue....the theory goes that if you repeat ‘The Big Lie’ loud enough ‘n often enough, the majority of the population will believe it ‘n the vote for repeal of what has been the saviour of the California homeowner.....
Now, the really harsh truth of the problem with the California school system is not a lack of funding..... fahcrissakes, Proposition 98 has funneled tons of money into the system....’n I’m not saying that California teachers are overpaid.....the fact is that the majority of them are underpaid ‘n the schoolrooms are overcrowded ‘n there’s a horrible lack of supplies....I’ve met too many teachers who buy supplies for their students out of their own money....Nah! The problem is that age old one of too many Chiefs ‘n not enough Indians.....bureaucracy in action......oh, ‘n one of the Big Lies is that California schools use’ta be really good, a benchmark for other states to aspire to.....Nope! Never were. If you were educated in California public schools prior to ‘The Prop’...you got yourself a sub-standard education.... almost every state in the Union was better.....’n the funny thing, California schools have done better since the inception of Proposition 13.....as a matter of fact, the State as a whole has done better, collected more tax money ‘n made for a more stable environment for home-owners......’n from what I’ve seen in other States, ‘The Prop’ should be a model for the rest of the country....
Which in a really sad way, we are....our economic policy which has the State teetering precariously on bankruptcy seems to have become a model for the federal government.....God help us all!....oops! That’s politically incorrect these days...Sorry!

Faster horses.....

“Let us go then, you and I, while the evening is spread out against the sky....”

So, we (Millyrose ‘n m’self) went to Carmelita’s for dinner.......she’s been wanting t’go all week ‘n I ain’t averse to a little Mexican food now ‘n again......I said, “Maybe we should just walk down there.”......down there being like two ‘n a half blocks......I should’ve said “stroll” cause Willie perked up his ears when he heard the word ‘walk’......Willie don’t miss much, he’s that alert.......’n course, Rusty woke up when Willie began barking ‘n dancing so I suggested that maybe we should just drive, it being still a little warm ‘n all......one of the things about being ‘old’ is recalling what things use’ta cost.....’n the fact that Italian ‘n Mexican ‘n Chinese use’ta be on the cheap side.....not ‘ny more......’specially if you want an alcoholic beverage with your beans ‘n rice.....I got over my extreme thirst years ago but I still like a beer with Mexican food ‘n Millyrose will have the occasional Margarita.....’n this day ‘n age, you gotta know that they are very damn occasional.....given the price ‘n all.....in my way back when time, two people c’d go for Mexican dinner with more than one beer (and Margarita) for less than the price of the drinks t’day......ah well, time marches to a different tempo t’day but, like Cher, the beat goes on......
I’ve often stated that the inherent value of a classical education is that it provides a base for the philosophical ponderings on one’s failure to thrive....thriving, of course, in that grand old search for the American Dream...or as that sage Tom T. Hall phrased it, “faster horses, older whiskey, younger women and more money”
ah well, as my old Modesto friend ‘n bartender use’ta say...”First, I t’ink vell, den I t’ink hell, den I t’ink, vell, vot de hell.”

A seeker of wisdom 'n truth....

"I grow old, I shall wear my trousers rolled..."

T’is the season when magazines are full of summertime living articles......the perfect cool drink (mixed carefully, of course, with exotic flavors that most people have never heard of)...the perfect barbeque with coals of really rare and hard to find hardwoods from a distant mountain valley on the other side of the world (whichever side you happen t’be on, it’s on the other side)...the perfect burger, ground beef from handfed steers raised only in a secluded glen 'n gently, oh so gently, sacrificed by the light of a blue moon......
I just read an article on the perfect ‘burger (sighh)...
I just want’a say that Dagwood Bumsteads perfect sandwich is the perfect gastronomic nightmare for anywhere normal people and the perfect burger is whatever satisfies your p’tick’lar palate...no more, no less and one man’s garnishment is apt t’be another man’s poison......
S’funny, when I was a boy we never had barbeques in our neck of the woods....what we had was ‘weenie roasts’... that’s where you put a weenie (weiner for absolutists) on a stick, hold it in the flames as long as you dare ‘til it’s charred black on the outside ‘n relatively untouched on the inside, put it in the cheapest hot dog buns that y’could buy, scrape on some mustard (ketchup for the weak of heart) ‘n devour it while standing back from the bonfire.....ah well, golden youth flies ‘n it’s prob’ly a good thing for our stomachs.....

Ah Johnny, we hardly knew ye....

The Kennedy's have been in the news constantly since 1960...I'm as fed up with them as I am with Michael Jackson (last report: he's still dead)....Old Joe Kennedy was a bootlegger like Al Capone only where Capone tried to buy the police 'n the courts, the Irish were the police 'n the courts....that's why Capone died in prison 'n Joe Kennedy went to the Court of Saint James...jeez....John Kennedy was a womanizer and a liar who cheated on his wife with darn near anything that wore skirts (no reports on those who wore pants)....His book, Profiles in Courage, was ghost-written (as was likely his entire education) People who damn George Custer for being a fool and look up to John Kennedy have their heads stuck where the sun never shines...
Robert Kennedy (who I inexplicably liked) had no qualms as Attorney General in breaking the law to achieve the results that he wanted to get, namely; to take down the organized crime Lords who had helped put brother John into the White House...sssIronically achieving the same result as brother John....
Jackie Bouvier Kennedy, that icon of American womanhood, married for money, ignored her husbands affairs while racking up some of her own and when the Kennedy money was taken away (at least, the bulk of it) by the death of John, she sold herself off to Aristotle Onnassis who was dumb enough to marry her but too savvy to not figure out that he'd bought the proverbial 'pig in a poke'...(nothing quite like paying a king's ransom to poke a pig in a poke)...The son, John-John, a wealthy, good-looking chip off the old blockhead distinguished himself by...ummm, failing the bar exam a number of time and killing himself in a light plane crash (pilot error)...Caroline, y'know, can't string y'know more than y'know two words y'know at a time....ah hell, you get the idea....
Teddy as we all know is a drunken womanizer and bellicose liar who, under t'days standards, would be, should be in jail for murder for having caused the death of Mary Jo Kopechne...
The list goes on 'n on 'n on.....there seems no end to the Kennedy dynasty and the Kennedy tradition of being block-headed drunks with nary an original thought amongst them....
Oh, this rant was brought to you courtesy of Kathleen Kennedy Freeman (Bobby's daughter) who evidently belives as a good catholic that the Pope should bow down to Obama......

Ahhh.....politics....

The late Tip O'Neill use'ta say, "all politics is local politics!"
Wasn't original with him....he didn't 'zackly plagirize it, he was after all a politician 'n we all know politicians don't plagirize, they just forget (or don't know) who to attribute....(tip: when in doubt, give the credit to Will Rogers, Mark Twain or Willy Shakespeare)
Politicians are like actors (or jocks)...it ain't that they can't be bright, it's just that they are so self-absorbed as to seem stupid.... OK! Maybe some of 'em are really stupid...c'd be that we need to elect these kind of people so that those of us that are just of average smarts c'n feel superior....
What set this p'tick'lar rant in motion this morning was an item in 'The Bee' stating that the budget meeting scheduled for yesterday had been cancelled because the Democratic Speaker of the Assembly had not been able to figure out the flight schedule from LA to Sac....I have pre-teenage grandchildren that can read an airline schedule...they're probably more qualified to work on the state budget than Karen Bass....and ain't she a fine example of, dare I say, affirmative action....
Of course, I'm just an old white man (unfortunately not a rich one) 'n we've evidently screwed up not only this country but the entire world....ahhhh well, it's all just politics, ain't it?

perfect burger....

T’is the season when magazines are full of summertime living articles......the perfect cool drink (mixed carefully, of course, with exotic flavors that most people have never heard of)...the perfect barbeque with coals of really rare and hard to find hardwoods from a distant mountain valley on the other side of the world (whichever side you happen t’be on, it’s on the other side)...
I just read an article on the perfect ‘burger (sighh)...
I just want’a say that Dagwood Bumsteads perfect sandwich is the perfect gastronomic nightmare for anywhere normal people and the perfect burger is whatever satisfies your p’tick’lar palate...no more, no less and one man’s garnishment is apt t’be another man’s poison......
S’funny, when I was a boy we never had barbeques in our neck of the woods....what we had was ‘weenie roasts’... that’s where you put a weenie (weiner for absolutists) on a stick, hold it in the flames as long as you dare ‘til it’s charred black on the outside ‘n relatively untouched on the inside, put it in the cheapest hot dog buns that y’could buy, scrape on some mustard (ketchup for the weak of heart) ‘n devour it while standing back from the bonfire.....ah well, golden youth flies ‘n it’s prob’ly a good thing for our stomachs.....

Quiet Sat'iday....

Just a quiet Sat’iday morning...

I was trying to sleep in...I wanted to sleep in...I was determined to sleep in....but the dogs were getting impatient ‘n the darn chickens were telling each other (‘n the rest of the world) that it was time to go out ‘n find the worm.....
S’funny how them dogs c’n get up so early in the morning ‘n be so anxious to go out ‘n then they come back in ‘n curl up ‘n go back t’sleep...I wonder if I ‘uz to put some coffee in their waterbowls if they’d get wired ‘n stay awake...’course, that ain’t something to wonder about very long before you figure out that is a situation to be avoided however possible...
Dragged m’self off to the gym for my morning workout...
y’know how the ubiquitous ‘they’ always say how much better you’ll feel after a workout..t’ain’t true...after a workout, all I want’a do is take a nap..not happening tho’...
got chores t’do...dogs t’walk...little things but they do keep a body from napping.....
Going to Music Circus this afternoon..courtesy of Gina...‘Thoroughly Modern Millie’....
I find as I’m aging (courtesy of good genes ‘n good luck) that I prefer afternoon delites ‘stead of evening ones...the evening ones interfere with my napping in front of the teevee....’n one must get one’s nap before going to bed...mustn’t one?
ah well, it’s all a question of priorities anyways...

"His'try.....

ignore it at your peril.” Justin Other Smith

“I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy.....’’ George M. Cohan

I was born less’n half a mile south of the Mason-Dixon Line so by the grace of God ‘n geography, I’m a son of the South...
In that great uncivil war between the States, Kentucky did not secede......it split, friend against friend, family against family...even the churches split..it was a bitter time for the whole country but especially bitter in the border states...Kentucky ‘n Missouri....
Y’should remember that in 1860 we were less than a hundred years from declaring our independence from Great Britain ‘n there were men still living who remembered that famous day ‘n year ‘n the midnite ride of Paul Revere....
Most of modern day America believes (indeed, has been taught) that our Civil War was fought to end the vile practice of slavery. T’ain’t true tho’ slavery played a big part in the schism.
The war was about ‘Economics ‘n States Rights’...’n I bring all this up on this ‘OUR’ day of Independence simply to point out the inherent danger of ideologicalreasoning.
Nothing is always black ‘n white, it’s always shades of grey. Successful gamblers know that ‘all or nothing’ is a dangerous ‘n impractical strategy that eventually ends in disaster.
‘Course you sh’d remember that not every lemming jumps...’n maybe some of ‘em can swim...
Happy Independence Day

Over the hill...

‘n deep in the valley....

Once upon a time in that long ago place that I generally refer to as my ‘way back when time’..actually a lot more than once ‘cuz I was ever a dreamer, I use’ta climb the hill to the top of the ridge that overlooked Beattyville ‘n the river ‘n had a pretty good view of Portsmouth, Ohio too....There were three outcroppings along the path to the top of the ridge ‘n I would sit down on the highest one ‘n let my legs dangle into space while I stared off into the blue distance....I still do that t’day only without sitting on the ridge looking out over the river....mostly I call it (if pressed) lost in reverie...’n when you get lost in your mind like that, you c’n, like the Pooka, Harvey, go anywhere you want ‘n stay as long as you like ‘n when you get back, only a few minutes will have passed....you c’n give it any name you like, meditation or dreaming or magic...it doesn’t matter, a rose by any name...etc...
Ernest Hemingway wrote a book called, “Across the river and into the trees”....he got the title from what are supposed to be the last words of Stonewall Jackson...
Famous people seem to be dying at a record pace the last few weeks ‘n I find myself reading the obits of my hometown newspapers more ‘n more frequently ‘n more ‘n more frequently, I find the names of people I know (or use’ta know at any rate)....’n in statistical terminology, they’re all members of the same fraternity as m’self...all part of the over the hill gang ‘n in a conversation with a neighbor (a member of that same fraternity) he used the phrase ‘over the hill’......I told him I had crossed that ridge ‘n was deep in the valley but I was planning on taking my time along the way....
Anyways I was surprised to learn that there are a number of Americans who don’t know that we celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence on the Fourth of July....so from an over the hill, deep in the valley guy...Happy Independence Day y’all!

T’is an obscenity.....

The Ayatollah Khameni has called for the execution (murder) of Iranian citizens that had the temerity to speak out against an unjust rule. The President of Iran (at least in his own mind) has denied the Holocaust ever happened no matter how well documented was this tradgedy.
In the civilized world, religions that call for human sacrifice have disappeared. There is something inherently wrong with a religion that not only condones murder but actively encourages it. And after all, actions speak louder than words..
I keep hearing that Islam is a religion of peace but the actions of Muslims around the world give the lie to that statement.
It isn’t unusual for people to lie. It isn’t unusual for governments to lie. What blows me away is that it all seems t’be unnecessary....Our government tells us that we’re approaching bankruptcy ‘n most of us seem to believe that....except maybe our legislators act as tho’ they’re lying to us about that and there’s more’n enuff money to go around..well, to go around them...as long as they get theirs why, of course, bankruptcy don’t count...
Placer County, f’r example laid off a bunch of people ‘n furloughed a bunch more ‘n saved sumthing like seven million dollars...They did such an outstanding job as a matter of fact, they slapped themselves on the back and gave the top seven administrators (y’know, folks who stand around with their hands in their pockets) a healthy five per cent raise......AND they don’t mind telling the world about it...no shame migawd!

An ever spinning reel.....

“Half remembered names and faces, on an ever spinning reel...”

T’is a long ‘n winding road we tread....our beginnings buried in the mist of memory that we only know from what we’re told....the memories of those who were there at our beginning.....our own mem’ries, the ones we consider t’be real, come later, in bits ‘n pieces....
snatches of color in a dream....a remembered scent.....little things passed over swiftly enough but caught in our subconscious to stay with us all our days...
Friends begin to fall away even in the springtime of our youth ‘n are lost only to come again in the fullness of a dream....
I understand the US Post Office is taking out those old standbys, the neighborhood mailbox....I guess that shouldn’t be a surprise...when was the last time that you found a public pay phone that was usable...’n I bet when you did find one, it didn’t belong to AT&T.....those are long gone....another thing that is doing a disappearing act is that ringy-dingy thing that used to set on a hall table, what the younger set call...’the land line’....the brave new world is upon us whether we’re ready for it or not....snail mail is out...heck, e-mail is falling by the wayside ‘n being replaced by Twitter....’n by the by, one doesn’t twitter, one tweets on Twitter...James Kirk ‘n his merry band ‘ud find themselves at a technological disadvantage here in the early days of the Twentyfirst....

Early summer..

It’s a warm evening at the beginning of summer ‘n we just got home from a lecture on the benefits of JuicePlus...wasn’t a complete waste of time tho’ I doubt that I’ll try the supplement route...on that proverbial other hand however, I need t’do sumthin’ about my diet..more fruits ‘n veggies, I spoze... ‘n according to the Doctor who gave the lecture, swimming ain’t enuff...I need to go back to some of the weight thing at least twice a week..(bummer)...maybe I’ll try it tomorrow... use’ta be a bar out in the south area had a big sign over the back bar that stated unequivocally..”Free drinks tomorrow”.....

All lies 'n jest....

“...Such are promises
All lies and jest
Still, a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest.” Paul Simon

Political conventions are a hoot, y’know? It seems t’be important which convention drew the most viewers...like the Olympics...the more viewers, the higher the rate for commercials....Wow! D’ya think it’s all about the money...maybe? Ah well, it’s all for show, ain’t it? I mean, does it really matter which side wins...don’t we all lose no matter what?...I don’t know, it just seems more ‘n more that national politics is just a dressed-up version of professional wrestling...
Life picks at all of us, just ‘n unjust alike...there wuz a character in ‘Little Big Man’ Mr. Merriweather whose ev’ry appearance wuz marked by the absence of another body part...It didn’t faze him, tho, deception wuz his life’s blood.....Mr. Merriweather said of moral order in the universe, “There isn’t any. Those stars twinkle in a void ‘n the two-legged creature schemes ‘n dreams beneath them, all in vain.”
I’ve been fortunate in my life....as my buddy, Vic sez....”I’ve got my threescore ‘n ten so all the rest is gravy.”
Life picks at all of us...it takes hair, teeth, body parts...if y’get the chance to hang around long enuff, y’gotta pay whatever toll it demands ‘n it don’t do any good to cry about it....
The little village of Beattyville which I’ve spoken of many times is a prime example...ev’ry year the Ohio River takes a little bit more of it ‘n one day it’ll all be gone...brother Jim likens the Carl Perkins Bridge (construction of which took away about a mile of South Portsmouth, homes, hillside et al) to the Alaska ‘Bridge to Nowhere’....not nearly enuff traffic back there to justify the expense ‘n besides, it’s named after a politician ‘stead of the more deserving rock ‘n roller....just another example of change that ain’t really progress...

Leader of the pack.....

“Out here havin’ fun in that warm California sun...”

What ever happens in America happens first in California.....we lead the nation in ev’ry damfool thing that ever gets tho’t of....up to and including insolvency...yessereeBob (‘n George ‘n ever’one else)....Californians lead by example...we’ve been spending like there’s no tomorrow for more yesterdays than I c’n count ‘n we’ve been so gosh-
darn successful at it that George Bush followed in our giant footsteps ‘n now barack Obama is gonna outdo that faux Texan ‘n upstage us folks here in sunny California by spending more than any gov’t in the ‘hull world....ever!.....Tomorrow never comes ‘n yesterday is just a mem’ry...
According to Obama, Fox News tells all the news that the New York Times figures ain’t fit to print...
Obama figures that the news is ‘fair ‘n balanced’ when all the networks support him ‘cause Fox bad-mouths him all the time...(poor baby)....with that loudmouth Irishman, Bill O’Reilly, leading the way..
well, Billy O has been getting a little more rambunctious (there’s a big word for ya, Bill) but mostly he’s so supportive of Obama that much of his audience is beginning to suspect that he’s a closet liberal ‘n are turning to (gasp) BECK! Now there’s a loudmouth for you...he claims he is neither Democrat nor Republican...something of an anarchist, I suspect.....that’s alright with me...ev’ry good ole’ Rebel has a little sumthing of the anarchist in his soul....

Summer doldrums.......

Just so’s y’know, it was an absolutely Tony the Tiger GREAT party.....the 50th Anniversary bash that we just had.....the kidz did a mahvelous job ‘n seemed t’me that ev’ryone had a good time ‘n went away smiling ‘n you just can’t ask for a lot more than that....
Anyways now we got a quiet Sunday, well at least as quiet as two little dogs will allow when there are chickens ‘n squirrels ‘n birds ‘n strange cars that drive on their street....I tried t’watch Meet the Press ‘n as much as I like wats’isname Gregory, he ain’t no Tim Russert ‘n NBC is lookin’ more ‘n more like the leaning tower of warmed over pizza ‘n that’s just sad....
The vast wasteland seems t’be vaster than ever, at least for what used t’be the powerhouse networks, the Major Leagues so t’say.....I was reading some of the shows that are being cancelled ‘n most of ‘em were just to ho-hum to matter....I have a neighbor who watches old-style teevee, y’know antenna ‘n what comes free thru the air....he sez when the switch to digital actually happens ‘n he can’t watch teevee at all anymore, he doesn’t think he’ll really care....’n I can’t blame him except I watch a lot more television than I use’ta...’n most of what I watch is cable....that’s where the almost-good shows are ‘n thank heaven for TIVO ‘cuz what I do is record all the shows I think I want’a watch ‘n then delete them at a later date....
What we got is the ‘summer doldrums’ which basically translates to really boring teevee.....

Designated driver....

“Do not send to ask for whom the bell tolls.......”

Ev’ry day seems like somethin’ happens to remind me that time flies whether you have fun or not.....sort’a like ‘pick your posies when you may’ stuff....Farrah Fawcet is dying (probably) of cancer ‘n she’d doing it publicly...well, at least on camera anyway.....public people live their life for the world t’see ‘n for many of them, the part that the world doesn’t see is less real....privately they may be shorter, fatter, dumber.....they may be boozers, druggies and/or perverts......they may have less hair ‘n more pimples.....completely different people in private than in public....When Burt Reynolds was married to Loni Anderson, they lived in different wings of their mansion ‘n told a magazine that they never let the other see them without their makeup......Laurence Olivier... Sir Laurence Olivier told late night television watchers that he was dumb ‘n that if he weren’t an actor, he would probably have ended up ‘on the dole’.....I don’t think that’s completely true.....like the sophism about the dumb jock...altho’ I’m quite sure that there are dumb jocks ‘n dumb actors, I’m just as sure that there are dumb writers, teachers, policemen, druggists, whatever profession you might think of, dumb is no respecter of person....we all have huge gaps in our thought processing centers that should prob’ly be labelled ‘dumb’....maybe even capitalized ‘DUMB’.....(possible exception, of course, being politicians who are always in their own little world to the exclusion of everyone else).....
Anyways, Millyrose ‘n I are rapidly coming up on our 50th wedding anniversay (talk about time flying) ‘n she ‘n the gurlz have been uber-bizzy arranging a humongous luncheon to celebrate this momentous occasion...(I’m reminded of Lincoln’s words, “The world shall little note nor long remember......”)
Not that I’ve ever been noted for my modesty but I can’t lay claim to any bragging rights for the longevity of this marriage.....it’s all the fault of Millyrose for putting up with me.....I’m just the designated driver.....

What's in the air.....

My hometown of South Shore, Ky is in the news....well, that’s if you consider the Portsmouth Times as news....
Back in my way back when time, Portsmouth, Ohio was a thriving community of 40K plus....the N & W Railroad had a big yard, there was a steel mill, two or three shoe factories and, for a shot in the arm, the Atomic Plant came to the area and a host of newcomers came to build it....downtown Portsmouth was busy in those days with seven or eight movie houses, a couple area drive-in movies, a booming if somewhat raucous nightlife and shopping, shopping, shopping.....one of the most lucrative businesses was the toll bridge (the U.S. Grant) across the Ohio River...
Well, that was then... Portsmouth t’day is less that 20K and most of the ‘real’ stores have gone...there is no Railroad, no steel mill, no shoe factories, in fact, no factories at all....they do have a college, Shawnee State, but they tore down some aw’fly nice old homes to put it where it stands....A college is a nice thing for a small town to have but when it is the primary business of a town......ahhhh well....
Anyways, South Shore made the front page of the Portsmouth Times for a drug bust...I didn’t know any of the people involved.....’course, I don’t know a lot of people back there t’day.....As Portsmouth went downhill, sadly South Shore did also.....way back when, South Shore had two movie houses, a Chevrolet dealership, S.M. Roberson’s general store (a precursor of t’days supermarkets) a bank, several restaurants, a couple barbershops, service stations and assorted businesses..
Times change (sighhhhh)....’n whether they’re better or worse isn’t really for us to judge....we’re much to close to our present to make a fair assessment and as far as our past is concerned.....well, we tend to filter our mem’ries...
which ain’t necessarily a bad thing.....just the way things are.....

Tortured logic......

T’other day someone stole a ball cap from me ‘n I’m still venting about it altho’ I’m trying to forgive my trespassers ‘cuz I’d like t’be forgiven for my own trespasses......when it’s phrased that way it sounds like I’m trying to make a bargain with God, don’t it?....anyways I figure I’ve trespassed more’n enuff in my life ‘n besides, carrying anger around with you just plain has too high a price....Heck! The price of a bottle of Tums c’n give a body an upset stomach....’course, Tums is a deductable item but I bet there’s darn few people who keep good enough records to do that......
Shades of Mayberry, RFD.....I just heard that an old friend of mine (Denver ‘Bud Mullins, but don’t tell) is a deputy Sherrif in Dover, Tennessee.....dunno what that says for Bud but sheds some light on Dover, Tenn......
Took da boyz (Rusty 'n Willie) in for a bath ‘n trim....Millyrose found a new groomer.....don’t know how she’s gonna work out but she let me know right upfront that she wants t’be paid in cash....at least, this first time ‘n maybe after she gets t’know us, why then she might take a check....
Went to Davis t’other night to see Emerson Jr. High’s production of ‘Bye, Bye Birdie’....everyone does a good job ‘n I enjoyed the show but there was only one intermission ‘n those little folding chairs are torture for these old bones.....
Just so’s you know......I’m against torture. I don’t believe in it and I think most Americans are against it also. And that includes President Bush. The ignorance of the arrogant liberals is truly wearying. And as far as waterboarding (?) is concerned, it isn’t really torture. Not by definitinon anyway. According to the dictionary, torture is the action or practice of inflicting severe pain on someone as a punishment or to force them to do or say something, or for the pleasure of the person inflicting the pain.
By that definition, John McCain was the victim of torture. He was beaten, suffered broken bones, was deprived of both food and sleep, and isolated. He was tortured.
By that same definition, none of the captive terrorists at Guantanamo have been tortured. No beatings. No broken bones. They all appear to be clean and well fed and they’re certainly not isolated. They were not tortured....

Festivus Fair Oakus.......

or the first day of what used t’be the Fair Oaks Festival but is now known as Fair Oaks Springfest....the movers ‘n shakers ‘round ‘n about our little village seem to have become chicken-brained.....anyways, it’s raining here t’day (seems like it’s raining all over the world, I don’t know about Georgia) and all the leaves, the trees are green ‘n drooping ‘n the blue jays are in hiding along with most of the chickens....not all of ‘em cuz when I took da boyz for a walk there was enuff of ‘em strutting about to give Willie his exercise.....he do love chasing chickens.
‘course, he also likes chasing cars ‘n leaves ‘n most anything that moves.....wonder how he’d have done at the Derby.....that was some speedy horse that won t’day....I believe I heard ‘em say that he was a gelding....too bad...
can you just imagine the stud fees that would’ve come from a ten thousand dollar investment.....he could’ve turned the national economy around all by his own self....
anyways.....it’s been pretty slow around here t’day considering it’s Festival weekend....guess all the rain kept scads of people away.....well, maybe the swine flu kept some of ‘em away also.....